Segment Routing (SR) enables any node (e.g., a Server, Provider Edge (PE) router, Aggregation router, Provider (P) router) to select an explicit path for each of its traffic classes. This explicit path does not depend on a hop-by-hop signaling technique (e.g., Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) or Resource reSerVation Protocol (RSVP)). It depends, rather, on a set of “segments” that are advertised by a link-state routing protocol. These segments act as topological sub-paths that can be combined together to form the desired explicit path. There are two forms of segments: nodal and adjacency. A nodal segment represents a path to a node. An adjacency segment represents a specific adjacency to a node. A nodal segment is typically a multi-hop path while an adjacency segment is a one-hop path. SR's control-plane can be applied to the Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) data plane, wherein a nodal segment to node N is instantiated in the MPLS data plane as a Labeled Switched Path (LSP) along the shortest-path to the node. An adjacency segment is instantiated in the MPLS data plane as a cross-connect entry pointing to a specific egress data link.